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Instructions for the activity Procedure for water clarification Procedure for disinfection experiment Student observation sheet Class results sheet Student observation sheet (trial results) Additional information about the experiments Student learning outcomes Extension activities 2 3 4 5/6 7 8/9/10 11/12 13 14
Local water source: ________________________ (e.g. Nile River) Drops of bleach required to 500 ml water: drops) Nature of water: Temperature: _____________________ (average number of
________________________ (fresh, salt, estuarine, marine, etc.) ________________________ (temperature when water collected)
File names for water sample photos __________________________________________ Class name and number of students __________________________________________ School registration number _____________
b. c. d.
6. After a large amount of sediment has settled on the bottom of the bottle of swamp/river/dam water, carefully - without disturbing the sediment - pour the top twothirds of the swamp/river/dam water through the filter. Collect the filtered water in the beaker/plastic bottle. 7. Compare the treated and untreated water. Has treatment changed the appearance and smell of the water? 8. Check with your teacher if you can also do the additional activity on measuring turbidity of the dirty water, the clarified water and your household drinking water. 9. OPTIONAL Place samples of the treated and untreated water side-by-side and take a photo for submission to the Global Database.
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BasedonU.S.EnvironmentalProtectionAgencyactivityat: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/kids/flash/flash_filtration.html
Safety
Safety glasses must be worn at all times during this activity. The water is not safe to drink. Direct contact with bleach should be avoided. Senior high school students may be allowed to carry out this activity. Class demonstrations are recommended for junior
1. Dip a chlorine test strip into 500 ml (approximately 2 cups) of the clear liquid obtained from the filtration activity (the filtrate) above and use the product color-code chart to estimate the free available chlorine level of the liquid. Record the level of chlorine in the filtrate in the table on the Students Result Sheet for Water Disinfection. 2. Add 2 drops of bleach to the filtered liquid, stir gently for 5 seconds, and repeat the test strip reading immediately. Record your results in the table. Keep adding 2 drops at a time, and record the number of drops added, until a chlorine level registers on the test strip. As chlorine bleach is added to the filtered water, chlorine is being used up in destroying harmful germs, so it could take a few additions of bleach before a chlorine residual can be observed. 3. Once the chlorine residual is noted, wait 10 minutes WITHOUT ADDING MORE BLEACH and again record the free available chlorine level. 4. If the chlorine residual disappears over the course of 10 minutes, add two more drops and see if a free chlorine level reading of at least 1 3 parts per million can be measured 10 minutes after adding the chlorine. (If after 2 drops and 10 minutes, no chlorine residual is noted, increase the number of drops by 2, trying 4 drops. Wait 10 minutes and check for the chlorine residual. If no chlorine residual appears, increase the number of drops to 6, etc., until a chlorine residual can be noted after 10 minutes.) When this happens, you have added enough chlorine bleach to destroy many of the germs in the water, leaving a small excess of chlorine. 5. Calculate the total number of drops used for the disinfection and report it to help determine the class average.
Water Appearance
Appearance and smell before the start of treatment Appearance after aeration
Water Disinfection
(Use 500 mL of your filtered water for this activity.) Free Available Chlorine Bleach added Number of drops 0 Colour of chlorine test strip
Free available chlorine/ parts per million
No bleach Number of drops added until residual bleach present (Step 2) After 10 minutes (Step 3) Number of drops to give residual chlorine after 10 minutes. (Step 4) Total number of drops
Conclusions
1. Compare the treated and untreated water. Has treatment changed the appearance and smell of the water?
2. Do you think your clarified water is safe to drink? Give a reason for your answer.
3. Do you think your filtered and disinfected water is safe to drink? Give a reason with your answer.
Group number
1 2 3 4 5 Average
Type of water
24 oC
Fresh, swamp
Water Appearance
Murky with individual small particles visible; smelled sulfurous.
Appearance and smell before the start of treatment Appearance after aeration
Less murky than when first collected; clumps of suspended sediment visible.
Very much clearer than when first collected, with fewer clumps of suspended sediment visible, a few large pieces of twigs floating on the surface, and a few very small organisms swimming. Continues to become clearer; more sediment settling; a few pieces of twig still floating on the surface. Some of the smallest organisms have stopped swimming; others continue.
Water Disinfection
(Use 500 mL of your filtered water for this activity.) Free Available Chlorine Bleach added Number of drops 0 4 Colour of chlorine test strip Free available chlorine/ parts per million 0 1.0
No bleach Number of drops added until residual bleach present (Step 2) After 10 minutes (Step 3) Number of drops to give residual chlorine after 10 minutes. (Step 4) Total number of drops
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1.0
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1.0
Conclusions
1. Compare the treated and untreated water. Has treatment changed the appearance and smell of the water? After the treatment the water is clear and most of the smell has gone. 2. Do you think your clarified water is safe to drink? Give a reason for your answer. I do not think the water is completely safe to drink now. I think there are still germs in the water that will multiply over time.
3. Do you think your filtered and disinfected water is safe to drink? Give a reason with your answer. The water should be safer to drink now because enough bleach for some not to be used up. But I would not drink it because it was a school experiment done in a school lab not a food preparation area.
Group number
1 2 3 4 5 Average
Type of water
Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp Swamp
* Since this is an average figure, the result will not necessarily be an even number. Example for river water: Four groups in a school reported the minimum number of drops as 7, 6, 8 and 8 respectively. The numerical average is 7,25 but significant figures, as determined by the number of drops added, will require results to be reported as 7 drops.
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Safety Precautions
Safety glasses should be worn at all times during these activities. It should be emphasized that neither the clarified water nor the disinfected water will be safe to taste or drink. The students should be made aware of this at the start of the activity. Contact with the solid substances (alum and calcium hypochlorite) should be avoided. The household bleach should be handled with care.
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comparative purposes. Collect the water sample as close to the time the class will be carrying out the activity as possible. Alum, or potassium aluminum sulfate, is readily available and is inexpensive. In some countries it can be found in supermarkets, in the spice aisle. In others, it can be bought in pharmacies. The low-cost kit will contain alum. Although the procedure for water clarification specifies using 2 L cold drink bottles, smaller bottles will also be suitable. Although white play sand or swimming pool sand will be ideal, it can easily be replaced with clean fine building sand used for plastering of walls. The multipurpose sand should have a larger grain size and can be the building sand used in concrete mixtures. Small aquarium rocks can be replaced with washed natural pebbles, approx.1 2 cm in diameter. If the low cost kit is used, filtration will be done using a funnel and a filter paper. The teacher should link that filtration with filtration through a sand filter.
2.
3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Web Resources
Water Science and Technology For Students and Educators (US Environmental Protection Agency) Water Treatment Process (U.S. EPA) A Public Health Giant Step: Chlorination of U.S. Drinking Water (Water Quality & Health Council) Water Science for Schools (U.S. Geologic Survey) Chlorine Chemistry: Essential to Health in the Developing World (American Chemistry Council) The Secret Life of Bleach YouTube video (Google title) (American Chemistry Council)
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Chemical Background Aeration as a tool in water treatment the role of oxygen. Coagulation as a chemical tool to clarify water. Filtration as a physical tool to clarify water Chemical reactions that involve chlorination of water. The role of chlorine indicators.
Learning outcomes for Primary Classes In primary schools the activity provides an excellent opportunity for students to use simple equipment and develop a useful skill of recording observations. No quantitative processing of data is required; should the disinfection be done as a demonstration, the teacher can assist with processing data. The topic of water treatment is one of the important chemical ideas that is firmly embedded in students experiences of drinking water and waterborne diseases. It provides a good example when distinguishing between physical and chemical processes and is one of the early experiences students have with filtration. Students can usefully learn that clear water (as in the filtrate obtained in the experiment) is not necessarily safe to drink. Learning outcomes for Junior High School In addition to the learning outcomes mentioned for primary schools, the role of aeration during clarification can be included. A more detailed discussion on coagulation as a chemical process and filtration as a physical process can be given. Learning outcomes for Senior High School The explanations can include properties of chlorine, the role of the sodium or calcium hypochlorite and the link between the experiments and industrial water treatment.
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Extension Activities
Measuring turbidity (recommended for students of all ages)
Materials needed
A flashlight. A flat-bottomed drinking glass. Samples of unfiltered water (the original untreated water), filtered water (the filtrate from the clarification) and home drinking water.
Procedure
1. Pour equal volumes of unfiltered, filtered and home drinking water into a flat-bottomed transparent drinking glass. 2. Move the glasses of water into a dark room and place them on a flat surface. 3. Place the flashlight against the side of each container and shine a beam of light through each of the samples. Look at the path of the flashlight beam. 4. How does the path of the flashlight beam through filtered water compare to that through unfiltered water? How does the filtered water compare to tap water? 5. Now pour half of the filtered water out and replace it with home drinking water. Examine the effect by shining the flashlight through the glass. How many times must you repeat this dilution before you can see no difference between the filtered water and the tap water?
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